I'm currently sitting here using a dell 2005FPW 20" 1680x1050 resolution monitor and feel it's time for an upgrade. More room when coding and doing a bit of web design. Maybe the odd game. I may even use this monitor as a secondary (undecided).

The two monitors I'm looking at are the Dell U2412M or the U2711. I suppose price is a factor but it's not the deciding factor.

After looking here it appears the 27" is not ALL that larger and the PPI on each monitor suggest that things like text on the 27" is going to be tiny! On the other hand it does offer an awful lot more horizontal space.

I was reading here and here and then I just thought I'd ask you guys for an opinion!

It depends on various factors, I suggest you reading reviews especially "General and Office Applications" section of tftcentral reviews. I find quite a good detailed reviews on tftcentral and also calibrated profiles for easy availability for others.

The u2711 has a better colour gamut though. That's the only difference I can see so I can't see how "old" is an issue here.

The U2711 has a CCFL backlight whereas the U2713HM has an LED backlight and hence is less power hungry at the expense of a reduced colour gamut. The coating on the U2713HM is supposedly less harsh (although I haven't seen one to comment) and the design is more modern although I prefer the more boxy design of the U2711.

If I remember correctly the H has the same backlight as the HM but in addition has the same widegarmut color reproduction as the U2711. Seems it's already on their site: http://www.dell.com/.../dell-u2713h/pd

Yes I know it's not a Ultrasharp, but I also have a 3008WFP 30 Inch dell UltraSharp and recently got that 27" above to make my primary for gaming, because running games at 2560x1600 was costing me too much money in upgrades all the time, currently running 2x GTX680's to push that type of framerate at full details.

Honestly, for $249.. you could get (2) of them at $500 and I bet you would be happy with the screen real estate. Also I have 0 complaints when comparing the image to the 3008WFP, the only down side that some people may be turned off by is that it has edge to edge glass, so it is reflective. However I never see the reflectiveness unless the screen is totally back or the monitor is off. When an image is displayed, the IPS panel contrast/brightness over shadows any type of reflection.

I have a 2412M and while the vertical resolution is fun sometimes it can be annoying when you're watching movies or playing console ports (stupid AC3). The black bars sort of ruin the perceived contrast.

Also, the PPI really isn't that high, not even on the 2711. You just need to make sure it's sort of in balance with your other devices/monitors (if you're not using scaling). My laptop (which is powering my Ultrasharp) has 140ppi and because of the huge difference I can't use both of them at the same time, the difference is way too big.